1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and in particular to monitoring and managing activity in an aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to monitoring and retaining seat cushions in an aircraft.
2. Background
Currently, inspections of the interior of an aircraft may be made to prevent placement of or identify prohibited objects and/or items in an aircraft. The current inspections may be performed to ensure the finding of and/or disposing of these types of objects. Aircraft may regularly undergo vigorous inspections each day while cleaning the aircraft between. These actions may require several man hours per aircraft per day. If any areas appear to be tampered with, a more thorough inspection may then be performed.
For example, a passenger aircraft with 136 seats may require several man hours to inspect every seat cushion and other areas of the aircraft. Visual inspections may be performed concurrent with the cleaning of the passenger cabin. These visual inspections may be performed to identify areas in which tampering may have occurred. If any areas appear to be tampered with, a more thorough inspection may then be performed. These types of inspections also may cause unintended wear on parts, resulting in increased maintenance and replacement costs. For example, removing and replacing cushions repeatedly may result in parts being replaced more often.
These and other types of inspections may be time consuming and may increase the amount of time needed between flights. These types of inspections may reduce the number of flights possible, as well as requiring increased personnel to perform inspections.
Attempts have been made to make inspections easier to perform. For example, life vests have been put in boxes or compartments with doors. These doors may then be sealed with a tamper evident device. As a result, a visual inspection may be quickly made to determine whether the tamper evident device is intact.
Visually inspecting the spaces, including seat cushions, may be labor intensive. This type of inspection may increase expense and time to operate flights. Most spaces in an aircraft may not be accessed or tampered with the majority of the time. These types of seat cushions may not be designed for inspections requiring regular removal and reinstallation. As a result, these types of seat cushions may not withstand this type of daily activity. As a result, additional maintenance and replacement may be required causing significant additional costs to airlines.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and apparatus to overcome the problems described above.